Taylors of Harrogate: strengthening agency labour compliance | Compliance.One

Taylors of Harrogate asked Compliance.One to audit its recruitment agencies. The review identified five areas where agencies needed to strengthen their processes or documentation, followed by an action plan to address the findings.

About Taylors of Harrogate

Taylors of Harrogate is an independent family tea and coffee company based in Harrogate, Yorkshire. Founded in 1886, the business describes fairness, quality, creativity and respect for people as central to its values.

The requirement

The business wanted an independent review of its recruitment partners' processes, systems and records. The audit examined whether agencies were meeting the standards expected of them and provided evidence to support corrective action where needed.

What the audit assessed

The audit examined legislative and regulatory compliance, agreed terms of business, worker pre-employment checks and engagement arrangements. It also reviewed insurance held by labour providers and sub-suppliers, and how agencies treated worker pay, benefits and statutory employment rights.

The review covered recruitment best practice and service-level agreements, alongside ethical processes for financial disclosure and handling grievances.

Evidence reviewed

Each supplying agency was asked for evidence across 14 documents:

• Pre-audit questionnaire
• Certificate of incorporation
• VAT registration certificate
• Evidence of PAYE registration
• Confirmation of business insurance
• Template registration forms and worker contracts
• Health and safety, equal opportunities and diversity, and environmental policies
• Complaints policy and procedure
• Modern Slavery Statement
• ISO certificates, if held
• Membership certificates, such as ALP, REC or APSCo

The programme described in the case study covers all supplied workers through six-monthly checks of recruitment partners' processes, systems and records.

Five findings requiring action

1. Complaints process: agencies were advised to include details of the complaints process with the job brief.
2. Due diligence on worker pay: the audit recommended checks to confirm the treatment of preparation time in worker pay. The source describes this recommendation as confirming that “no preparation time should be included in worker pay”. This records the case-specific audit finding, rather than general pay guidance.
3. National Living Wage: worker contracts needed to refer to the National Living Wage.
4. Annual leave entitlement: the audit called for contracts to confirm the stated entitlement of 5.6 weeks (28 days) of annual leave.
5. Agency Workers Regulations: agencies were required to provide further evidence of their operating processes.

Corrective action and outcome

A plan was put in place to rectify all the failure items identified. The supplied case study reports that Taylors of Harrogate's supplying agencies and workers were compliant with the relevant UK legislation following remediation.

The engagement gave the business a documented view of the gaps and a clear plan for addressing them. These outcomes reflect the audit described in the source case study.

Download the Taylors of Harrogate case study (PDF)